The Royal Flying Corps In World War 1 by Ralph Barker

(Robinson £9.99)

AS thousands of soldiers fought and died in the mud of France and Flanders, a very different battle was taking place high above them.

Civilised warfare might have died in the stalemate of Ypres during the autumn of 1914, yet it was to experience a rebirth as the war escalated in the skies.

At the start of hostilities, the aircraft of both sides had a purely reconnaissance role, to observe troop movements and artillery positions.

From time to time, the aircraft of the opposing sides would meet, and shots were traded with rifle or revolver. Then it would be back to base.

But gradually and inexorably, the war in the air would reach a new intensity as the scouts became fighters. Gone would be the ineffectual side arms, to be replaced by machine guns capable of blasting man and machine out of the sky.

By the bloody April of 1917, death was being dealt out in ever-increasing large doses.

This gripping tale of Man's last frontier of war - the air - is eloquently told by a writer who is completely at ease with his subject. The accounts of the first aces, men such as McCudden, Mannock, Ball, Immelman and von Richthofen, leaps from the pages.

This is a defining work on the reality of aerial warfare between 1914-18.

Without doubt, Ralph Barker's book deserves a slot on your bookshelf.

John Phillpott